The Abandoning of the Hindrances
The Factors of the First Jhana
Applied Thought (vitakka)
Sustained Thought (vicara)
Rapture (piti)
Happiness (sukha)
One-pointedness (ekaggata)
Perfecting the First Jhana

Mahathera Henepola Gunaratana was ordained as a
Buddhist monk in Kandy, Sri Lanka, in 1947 and
received his education at Vidyalankara College and
Buddhist Missionary College, Colombo. He worked for
five years as a Buddhist missionary among the
Harijans (Untouchables) in India and for ten years
with the Buddhist Missionary Society in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.

In 1968 he came to the United States to serve as
general secretary of the Buddhist Vihara Society at
the Washington Buddhist Vihara. In 1980 he was
appointed president of the Society. He has received a
Ph.D. from The American University and since 1973 has
been Buddhist Chaplain at The American University.

He is now director of the Bhavana Meditation
Center in West Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley,
about 100 miles from Washington, D.C.

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